Lycanthrope
by Rae666
Summary: If your brother had a vision about a werewolf attacking him, would you go chasing after it? Even though you knew he was still hiding something? Possible spoilers and brotherly angst. Plus Dean… well, just read and find out. COMPLETE
1. Vision

.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.

Summary:

If your brother had a vision about a werewolf attacking him, would you go chasing after it? Even though you knew he was still hiding something? Possible spoilers and brotherly angst. Plus Dean… well, just read and find out.

Hey! Reuploading this story 'cause I've been reading through it and fixing grammar and typing errors – I'm ashamed at how many I've found so far.

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1. Vision

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_Sam ran his hands through his hair as he stared around, looking for escape, he kept repeating the same thing over and over under his breath._

"_No this can't be happening. This isn't right."_

_CRASH._

_The hulking form landed loudly on the ground nearby after quite a large jump. It began to circle Sam, considering him. Sam couldn't help but watch, he stunk of fear and this thing knew it. This thing, with its sharp and deadly claws and probably even sharper and deadlier teeth. It considered Sam. It was hungry, starving and as it drew closer, it seemed to smile. The moon shone brightly down into the clearing, illuminating the creature at its full beauty, its full horror._

_Its muzzle was nearly touching Sam now, the warm breath against Sam's face. It looked at Sam once more, looked at him with hazel eyes and it made its decision – It went in for the kill…_

…Sam felt the blood rushing from him but as he did, he felt the cold shower of water in his face.

It wasn't the first time his brother Dean had woken him from his tormented nightmares, but it was the first time he'd thrown so much freezing cold water over him.

Yes, that's what it had been. Just a nightmare. He was sure it wasn't vision, just as sure as he was that all demons were evil and that… but vampires were classed as demons, or at least that's what he thought he'd heard Dean call them a couple of times. Past experience had now taught him that not all vampires were bad, so were all demons evil? And if not all demons were evil, did that mean this dream of his had been prophetic? It had felt like one of his past dream visions except he couldn't see how it had anything to do with The Demon.

"You having nightmares again?" Dean asked, throwing himself onto his bed. He stared intently at his little brother, completely aware that the rude awakening he'd given him was now causing him to shake as the chilled water soaked through.

"You didn't have to chuck water on me!"

"Who said it was water?" Dean grinned.

Sam, disgusted at this, sniffed the top part of his shirt – which Dean had completely soaked. It smelt like nothing.

"What were you dreaming about?"

"Nothing." Sam replied.

"Didn't sound like nothing, Sammy." Dean had decided he needed to get straight into it, no playing around. If it had been another vision, they might need to move quickly.

"Dude I swear, it was nothing."

Dean sat up on his bed; this was obviously something Sam needed to deal with by himself first. But that didn't take away his concern, Sam was hiding something.

"It was just a nightmare." Sam said, yet who was he trying to convince, Dean or himself.

"Yeah, whatever man." Dean stood up with all intention to use the shower first that morning. He was just about to say something along these lines to Sam whilst clipping him around the head.

But as soon as Dean went to clip him, Sam flinched. Flinched in a way he'd never done with Dean before. Dean frowned at this, sickened. It was the type of flinch you gave to someone who had hurt you badly or was intending to, emotionally or physically. Had their fight last night really been that bad?

Sam looked sheepish, almost guilty. "I'm sorry." He muttered.

Dean lowered his hand and stalked over to the bathroom, repeating his words. "Yeah, whatever man."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

A couple of showers later and the brothers sat in silence in their cabin.

"Do we still need to talk about last night?" Dean said. He hadn't wanted to say it. He hated talking about emotions and things like that. Last night hadn't been talking, it had been shouting. Sam had been so angry with him, so pissed off and Dean felt he deserved it.

Their last job had gone slightly down south. They completed it. They never liked to leave a job undone but Dean had been stupid. He had deliberately and completely unnecessarily put himself in danger. He'd been suicidal to say the least, self destructive to say more and 'goddamn stupid and selfish' as Sam had described it.

"_You promised me, Dean!_ _You promised that I wouldn't lose you, not after everything." _

Dean hadn't been able to look at his brother. He had promised, not in the sense that he actually said it all out loud, but he had said bits of it and he couldn't remember, maybe he'd even thrown the words 'I promise' into the mix the last time they'd had their conversation.

"I'm sorry, Sam." Dean stared at the brown worn carpet.

Sam looked over at him, "No Dean, we said all that needed saying last night."

"Then why are you still so pissed at me?"

"I'm not pissed at you. I'm just still a little shaken up about my nightmare."

"It was another vision, wasn't it?"

"No, it couldn't have been…"

"But it felt like one?" Dean finished his sentence for him, "What happened?"

"I was attacked…" Sam stopped himself from saying any more and looked away from the trusting eyes of his brother.

"By what?"

"I don't know."

"Can you describe it?"

"And if I don't want to?"

Dean's brow furrowed, "Sam, if we don't find out what this thing is we can't kill it before it kills you."

"I know, I'm sorry."

"So, what did it look like?"

"A big wolf. A very big wolf that walked on it's hind legs."

"And you say you don't know what it was?"

Sam nodded, though he noted Dean's almost mocking tone.

"Then you really should go back to Stanford… It's full moon this week and I think you just described a werewolf." Dean laughed at Sam.

Sam didn't react. He just stared at the carpet.

"What you not telling me, Sammy?" Dean asked.

"Nothing." Sam replied.

"No, that seems to be exactly what you are telling me – nothing. You're hiding something."

Yes, Sam was hiding something. He'd known it was a werewolf as soon as he'd woken up. But the memory of those hazel eyes had stopped him from voicing his opinion. Hazel eyes full of hunger.

Dean knelt down next to Sam, "Hey, you feeling okay?"

Sam looked up and stared into his brothers hazel eyes which were so full of kindness and worry. There was no way they could be the same hazel eyes as his attacker.


	2. Decisions

.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.

Summary:

If your brother had a vision about a werewolf attacking him, would you go chasing after it? Even though you knew he was still hiding something? Possible spoilers and brotherly angst. Plus Dean… well, just read and find out.

Okay, I said I'd add another chapter as soon as I could and here we go. I had to rewrite over half of it because Dean was sounding too much like Sammy – and I couldn't have that. So, here it is chapter 2. Not much action, not much of a muchness actually – where as chapter 1 was a teaser, this chapter is setting up the story and then hopefully in the next chapter, I can get to some action and it'll be easier to write once I've gotten to that bit.

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2. Decisions

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"You know, maybe this once it'll be better if we don't follow your vision." Dean sighed, "I mean, if we don't go looking for the werewolf, you won't get attacked, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so." Sam sighed.

Dean absent-mindly pressed buttons on the laptop in front of him, "I'm pretty sure we'd have… oh."

"What?" Sam asked, "What's an oh?"

"Nothing." Dean said, but his brow was furrowed and he was staring intently at the screen, "It's nothing."

"Dean, tell me." Sam warned, "Does it have something to do with the werewolf?"

"No. Possibly, I dunno. It's just an article." Dean said, going to close the laptop.

Sam was too quick and spun it around to face him, where he could read the headlines of a newsletter for the previous month.

'Wild Animal Attacks Get More Deadly'

The article basically described how there had been animal mutilations in a town for the past several months but last month the beast, possibly a big wolf or bear according to the paper, had attacked and savaged a couple of people.

"It's probably nothing." Dean lied, "Not our kind of thing."

Sam looked at him, "Dean, the human attacks coincide with the lunar cycle and I bet the animal mutilations do too. This is a werewolf."

"So then we have to decide whether to go after it and personally, I don't want to put your life on the line. In your vision this thing attacks you."

"Well, if we're careful, we'll be fine."

"Sam, I don't care about me – well, yeah, I don't want to be werewolf chow – but it was you in the vision."

"Maybe it wasn't, maybe I just saw it through someone else's eyes." Sam reasoned, though he knew that was a down right lie and he knew by the shake of Deans head that he knew it too, "Look, it's been getting away with animal attacks but now it's moved onto humans and I bet it won't just stop with the ones from last month."

"Then we go, but I'm not letting you out of my sight." Dean said, his hazel eyes dared Sam to object.

Sam nodded, silently telling himself _'they're not the same eyes'._

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Sam shifted uneasily in his seat, the way he always did when he was thinking about something that could turn a peaceful moment, like the one they were in, into an awkward moment. Dean watched him from the corner of his eye. Neither one of them had spoken since they'd gotten into the Impala to head out to their new job and Dean could tell that something was bothering his brother.

"Sam?" He asked, egging his silent brother on, "You okay?"

Sam looked over at Dean but Dean just continued to watch the road ahead, "What?"

"I said are you okay?" He repeated.

"Yeah, I mean, I guess." Sam looked down, "How can we hunt a werewolf?"

"You really have been slacking, silver bullets man." Dean mocked.

Sam smiled but it didn't last long, "I know that but, well – asides from three nights a month, this guy's human right?"

Dean nodded, he even felt himself squirm slightly. Truth was, he'd been thinking along similar lines. Ever since meeting them vampires and Gordon, his black and white image of evil had fallen so much, his greyed lines were blurry and he tried not to think about it.

"Yeah, he is…" Dean spoke quietly.

"So how do we stop him?"

""Well, if we get there and he's about to rip someone apart, I'll frickin' shoot him, but…" Dean stopped, he didn't want there to be a 'but' because that complicated things.

"What if he has a family?" Sam bit his lip as he asked this. Was something else bothering Sam? He saw a flash of guilt in his brother's eyes.

And if it wasn't enough, Dean's own conscience had been screaming at him. But Sammy was meant to be his conscience; it was Sammy's job, so that Dean could stop things from hurting his family – so that Dean could do his job of being the protector.

"Tranquilisers." Dean said after awhile. He felt Sam staring at him so he carried on, "Got enough in the back to take down an elephant, never really needed them but, well, Dad…"

Dean stopped, his conscience was confused enough, and his emotions were too, without approaching that topic. He felt himself momentarily drown in the mixed feelings of confusion, guilt, sadness and downright anger. Yeah, he loved his Dad to bits and he was proud of his Dad and there was no way anyone would get away with slagging their Dad off as long as Dean Winchester had anything to say about it.

_Breathe. _Dean reminded himself, calming down slightly. When he looked over at Sam, he was glad to see Sam hadn't noticed his wall falling for that couple of nano seconds.

"Right, okay, and then we find some place to lock it up until morning."

Dean nodded in agreement, "And then we wait and see who he is and if he's still an evil-son-of-a-bitch, I'll empty a clip into him there and then."

"What do we do if he's just a normal guy?"

"Yeah, 'cause normal guys go around eating other people during a full moon."

Sam seemed taken aback, "So you're just gonna decide whether he's good or bad by how he reacts to waking up in a cage or whatever we lock him up in?"

"Look, don't worry, we'll find a way to save the day. If he's a good guy, we'll find a way to help him – even if it means giving him somewhere to lock himself up in during his time of the month." Dean smirked and he saw Sam smile properly.

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Woodland Creek _– _the name said it all. Well, maybe not all. The name basically said there was a wood near by and a creek. It didn't really go deep into the beauty and peace and tranquillity of it all. The actual town was small; it was the type of town that would attract people during hunting season and the occasional hiker and camper or two.

Of course, after the recent animal attacks people were probably warned against their usual hobbies that would involve going into the woods, or after last months attacks on humans, even near them. But hunting was not a hobby for the Winchester boys, though Deans cocky smile whenever he killed the bad guy might suggest different, it was a job and some may even have called it a crusade.

They rolled into Woodland Creek mid morning of the first day of the full moon. Dean had driven as fast as he could to get them there by then, he'd insisted on Sam sleeping 'cause he looked like Hell. Sam hadn't the energy to object but guilt played on his conscience as those peaceful moments of slumber turned into nightmares of a werewolf with hazel eyes.

He thought he really should tell Dean his fears or he should just tell him to turn around and they'll come back another time, but he just couldn't seem to spit the words out.

"Right…" Dean said as they pulled into Woodland Creek Lodge, such an imaginative name for the group of rented cabins that surrounded a large old wooden lodge, "I'm going to see if they've got any spare cabins going."

As soon as Dean returned with the keys, the boys would set up in their cabin and get down to some research. Oh glorious research, wonderful research which wasn't in the least bit boring…


	3. The Hunt Begins

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

Summary:

If your brother had a vision about a werewolf attacking him, would you go chasing after it? Even though you knew he was still hiding something? Possible spoilers and brotherly angst. Plus Dean… well, just read and find out.

Disclaimer – Don't own 'em

Warning – Mild language at parts.

First of all – after a couple of reviews from the last chapter, I'm sorry for the evil little authors note halfway through the story, he he. I promise there will be no more – I have learned my lesson. :D Also – as this is a stand alone thing, it probably doesn't matter where about in the series it goes but I think I'd place it before Croatoan… if I reference any events in later episodes I'm sorry.

And now – sorry for the wait, my time has been spread between college and work and a couple of social drinks (consisting of me nearly carrying my friend home) but here we go…

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3. The hunt begins

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"So we caught a lucky break here. There used to be a wild animal veterinary practice just off the borders of the woodland. Closed down a couple of years ago due to lack of funding."

"Okay? And that's lucky how? We gonna give the werewolf a few shots or something?"

"Wild animal veterinary practice, Dean, they specialised in bears and things. You need cages for stuff like that and my guess; they're big enough to hold a werewolf too."

"You know, if you say that fast a few times, I bet you'll get tongue tied."

"What?"

"Wild animal vet – "

"Dean, shut up."

Dean opened his mouth to object but settled for a grunt instead, "Right, vets it is then but we'll have to check those cages first."

It wasn't a long drive and the place didn't look too abandoned. In fact, it still had old supplies locked up inside. Supplies that were probably out of date but still, it was surprising the place hadn't been raided. It was a relief that the larges cages were near the entrance, this would be helpful when hauling a heavy assed werewolf later. Dean snatched up a set of keys hanging on a wall and studied them.

"There's got to be what? Thirty keys here?" Dean sighed.

"Try looking for a large one, the lock on the cages looks like its needs a large sturdy key."

Dean tossed the keys at Sam, "Well that narrows it down by about half."

Sam rolled his eyes at the sarcasm lacing his brother's voice, "Yeah, well I bet some of them are just copies. They probably just couldn't be bothered to put them on a separate key ring."

"Lazy swine's." Dean muttered, poking at something on the wall curiously. It was small and fluffy and it was just barely clinging to the nail it hung on, "Hey dude, I think I found a rabbit foot. You want it?"

Sam looked at Dean in an irritated way and went back to trying the keys in the lock of the largest cage, "Why would I want it?"

"S'posed to be lucky." Dean shrugged.

"Yeah well, tell that to the rabbit." The locked clicked and Sam turned to face Dean, "Found it."

As Sam started to pry the key of the old style key ring, Dean threw the rabbits foot at him and opened the cage door, stepping in, "Attach it to that, it'll make it easier to grab when we come here."

Sam didn't have a chance to reply as Dean started kicking and rattling the cage bars, making more noise than thought possible.

"Pretty sturdy, but let's just hope it's enough to hold a werewolf." Dean leant back and pulled on the cage door, testing how strongly it was attached, "And where to now?"

"There's a forest ranger not too far from here, way I see it – he'll be able to give up some info on the animal attacks, confirm our suspicions."

"What 'bout the family of the attackees?"

"'Attackees'? That's not even a word."

"Sure it is. It's like employer and employee, you have the attacker and the attackee – they're the one's attacked by the attacker."

"Dean Winchester logic?"

"Whatever." Dean shrugged.

"Well, the 'attackees' families are probably miles upon miles away seen as the people attacked weren't local, I think the first one was a hiker and the other two were hunters."

"Probably thought they could kill the big bad ugly and claim the prize?"

"Probably." Sam agreed.

The next half hour consisted of Sam giving Dean directions to the ranger's office and Dean taking a wrong turn, twice. When they eventually pulled up outside of the ranger's office, Dean's secret hope of the ranger being a young sexy temptress in uniform were dashed as an old completely unsexy man, wearing the same uniform that should have been hugging the body of Dean's imaginary girl, stumbled up the steps to his office, cursing under his breath as he went.

"I think the scariest thing in this life is that we have _that_ to look forward to."

"What?" Sam asked as he pulled himself from the car.

"Old age, man. Grey hairs and walking sticks."

"I dunno Dean, I thought I saw a couple of grey hairs on your head earlier."

"I wanna die young and sexy." Dean moaned whilst sending Sam an evil look for his comment.

Walking up to the ranger's office, Sam couldn't help but think of Jess, "I wouldn't mind growing up with a loving wife, you know, couple of kids and even grandkids."

"Yeah, you do that but at least they'll know that when their uncle dies, he'll come back as a hot ghost."

Sam ignored him, it was Dean's way of dealing, and he'd been at death's door so many times that Sam wasn't sure whether or not he and death were maybe even close buddies by now. He could imagine Dean and Death playing poker in a dim lit room, Dean with the widest smirk across his face and most probably, Dean being Dean, he'd be winning.

"Hey, get your game face on, how am I supposed to explain that dopey look on your face." Dean said, snapping his fingers in front of Sam's face.

Sam waved the hand away and knocked gently at the door. A string of curses came from inside and then an angry face appeared as the door creaked open.

"Yeah, what do you want?" The angry face said.

"Ranger Gibbons?" Sam questioned.

"What's it to you?"

"We're here about the recent animal attacks. Better late then never, but we're concerned about the wellbeing of the people around the forest area."

"Nah, you're just some out of towners come to pry in business that don't concern you."

"You're an ex-Marine?" Dean questioned.

Sam simply stared at his brother.

The old man raised an eyebrow suspiciously, "How'd you know?"

"You're tattoo." Dean explained, pointing at the wrinkled wrist. Sure enough there was a tattoo with the words 'Semper Fidelis' inked across it.

"You know much 'bout 'em?"

"Never really one for authority figures myself, but my Dad was a marine. He practically raised me and my brother like a drill sergeant."

"He tough on you?" The guy questioned, the door opening further and Dean took the first uninvited step into the office, followed shortly by Sam.

"Well, sometimes you need a bit of structure and discipline." Dean said, "He raised us good though."

Sam smiled, best way to get someone to divulge information – find common ground and Bob's your uncle.

"Well, if you were raised like that, you be serious about solving the little 'animal problem'."

"Absolutely. So if there's anything you can tell us, like where the bodies were found and when they were killed."

"At first, the animals were found deep in the forest but the people, they were practically on the borders, up at the north point. It's about half a mile up from the old vets."

_Then that's where we'll go hunting._ Dean thought to himself, and from the expression in Sam's eyes, he knew his brother was thinking the same thing, "So what about the when?"

"That's tricky, started a few months back and well, when animals get torn apart midway into the forest, they're not gonna get found for awhile, sometimes days, maybe even weeks. As for them people, they were the last that we know of, killed nearly a month ago. Them people were found the day after the full moon you know and we've had no attacks this month yet, wouldn't be surprised if those animals were killed during a full moon either."

"Are you implying something?" Sam asked, treading carefully.

"You mean do I think it's a werewolf? Nah, I'm not crazy but just because this town seems quiet don't mean it don't have its share of trouble. Personally I think it could have been devil worshippers, or youths – they're all the same I bet they got tired of sacrificing animals or whatever and moved onto bigger things."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"I liked him." Dean said as he climbed back into the Impala.

"You would." Sam muttered, closing his door.

"Getting dark." Dean said, "You fancy staking that north point spot out. Sounds like the best place to start."

Dusk had already settled as Dean pulled up and headed for the trunk, "So, how do we get it to the vets?"

He pulled out two guns and a bunch of tranquiliser darts, tossing one of the guns as Sam along with some darts. Sam made sure he hadn't stabbed himself with the darts before he answered, "Either we shove it in the back of the car and before you start complaining about your precious Impala, I doubt that'll happen 'cause it'll probably be too big so, if we've got some ropes, we might have to tie it to the roof."

Dean grimaced, "Can't we just drag it along behind the car."

"Human life Dean." Sam reminded him.

"I know but… the car…" He couldn't think of a thorough argument, at least not one that would work on Sam.

Both boys were getting restless a few hours down the line, though it showed the most in Dean who had taken to drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.

"Maybe we should roam the woods a bit, see if there's any signs."

"No. We don't know when or where it'll come from. If we just go wandering through the forest, it'll have the advantage and will probably just attack us."

Dean groaned and threw himself backwards in his seat in frustration.

"If you don't settle down we'll miss any give aways…" And before Sam could finish his sentence, he and Dean locked eyes; both of them had heard it. Somewhere down the border, someone had screamed.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

A/N – Who agrees with me that 'attackee' should totally be a word?


	4. Population – minus one

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

Summary:

If your brother had a vision about a werewolf attacking him, would you go chasing after it? Even though you knew he was still hiding something? Possible spoilers and brotherly angst. Plus Dean… well, just read and find out.

Disclaimer – Don't own 'em

Warning – Mild language at parts.

Oh God – This chapter is quite short, I never meant for it to be so short but that's the way it turned out. Thanks for reading so far and thanks for your reviews and your comments about my new word 'attackee' – I was really pleased with the response I got to that.

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4. Population – minus one

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Tranquiliser guns at the ready, the boys took off out the car and ran as fast as they could towards the scream, Dean cursing under his breath all the way. It was only minutes away but when a werewolf is concerned, those minutes could be the decider for life or death. The moon shone ominously overhead, big and bright, mocking them. Two sets of eyes constantly scanned the area up ahead and around, neither brother wanting any nasty surprises.

"I'm gonna kill you! You bastards!"

The brothers shared a quick confused glance and looked up ahead. The sight that they came across was a surprise. Just at the edges of the forest, a young girl probably about the age of sixteen was screaming at two young lads, maybe a year or two older than her. By her side was another young girl, wearing what looked like a guilt ridden face.

"What the hell?" Dean asked, hiding his gun as he got closer.

In the moonlight, the brothers could just make out tears streaming down the face of the screaming girl. She turned away from the teenage boys and sat down on a rock.

"What the hell you kids doing here?" Dean announced his arrival.

The teenagers all shared frantic looks, as if they'd been caught doing something very wrong. None of them dared to speak. Dean face hardened and he pointed to one of the lads.

"You, come on explain."

The lad rolled his eyes and looked down at the ground, unable to beat the intense stare he received from the older imposing man, he mumbled something. Dean looked to Sam, who shrugged his shoulders; neither brother had managed to understand a word of what the lad had said.

"Bit louder, I think, don't you?" Dean pushed.

"We were just having a bit of fun."

"Obviously not all of you." Sam said, his eyes focused on the girl with tearstained cheeks.

"It was just a prank." The boy said.

Dean was beyond fuming, they were in town on a werewolf hunt in order to prevent deaths, in order to save lives and here they stood, in front of a bunch of stupid kids who'd pulled them away from their hunt because of a stupid prank.

Sam, seeing the look on his brother's face, decided to jump in, "I think you should take your friend home and lay off the pranks, you know it's dangerous around the forest here lately, right?"

After mumbling in agreement, the brothers watched the kids leaving and made their way back to the car.

"You know, that Ranger Gibbons, he was right – kids and devil worshippers, nothing but trouble."

"You sound just like him; all you need is the grey hair."

Dean shot Sam a 'shut up before I make you shut up' look and continued stalking towards his car. When he finally reached it, he pulled back his sleeve and checked his watch for the time.

"Dean, take it easy." Sam said, leaning against the bonnet.

"If someone gets hurt because we were…" Dean paused, shivers running down his back. He suddenly felt completely uneasy, unsettled.

"What's wrong?"

Dean stared into the forest, "Can't seem to shake the feeling that we're being watched."

And then his head snapped round, "Sam, stay here!"

"Dean, what the hell?" He grabbed his brother's arm before he had the chance to rush off into the darkness of the forest.

"I heard something." Dean said in short, taking his arm away from Sam and he was off at a run.

Sam cursed under his breath and took off after him. His legs being longer than Dean's, it didn't take long to catch up but by the time he had, Dean had already stopped. In fact, Dean was kneeling down on the ground when Sam had caught up with him.

"Dean?" Sam questioned.

Dean looked up, "I told you to stay at the car."

Sam rolled his eyes but otherwise ignored his brother's comment, moving closer to look at whatever Dean had discovered.

"Is that…?"

"Ranger Gibbons, yeah." Dean stood up, "He was probably attacked when we went to check that scream out."

"What the hell was he doing out here in the first place?" Sam was shocked; there was no other word for it.

Dean turned around to show Sam he was now holding a hunting rifle, "Just a guess, but I don't think he really believed all that devil worshipper crap he was telling us."

"So what, he decided to just hunt this thing himself?"

Dean unloaded the rifle and tossed a bullet at Sam. Sam studied it and held it up in the light, "Silver? He knew?"

"He never even managed to get a round off." Dean sighed

Sam's brow furrowed, "Dean, do you think if he knew _what_ it was he tried to find out _who_ it was?"

Dean smiled, "I guess we'll find out when we give his cabin a once over tomorrow."

Sam looked down at the body, "We should really call this in."

"We'll do it tomorrow, if we do it now it'll just raise questions that I can't be bothered to answer."

"So we're just gonna leave him?"

"He's dead Sam, I checked his pulse. There's nothing we can do."

It was sad but it was true and it was a part of the job that the brothers wished they never had to deal with. So minds made up, they headed back to the car, Dean occasionally looking over his shoulder, still unable to shake that constant feeling of someone watching.


	5. Locked

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

Thank you all for your kind comments and for those lurkers, thanks for reading, it really means a lot. I hope you enjoy reading this chapter because I enjoyed writing it. I'm really hoping to get this story finished before they air 'Heart' because well, you know. So here's chapter 5.

Still don't own 'em. I wish I did.

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5. Locked

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By about half three, any fatigue the boys had been feeling was sapped away by an insane amount of adrenaline fuelled energy. It was always this way, as long as they reached that certain point in the morning, they were wide awake again and could go for hours, as long as they didn't let their heads hit anything soft. They knew this to be a fact, and with it being a fact, as soon as the sun was up but before they went to rest their weary eyes, they decided it was best to tell someone about Ranger Gibbons.

Sam was the one who called it in. Dean sat in the Impala, determinedly keeping his eyes open, staring at the tree line ahead. It was nearly nine o'clock; surely the local yahoo cops were finished with his brother by now. The car door opened, moaning weakly.

"What you tell them?"

"The truth, mostly. Said I recognised the body as Ranger Gibbons 'cause I went to talk to him yesterday and he was an old grouch who wasn't too keen on telling me anything."

"And they didn't ask why you were wandering in the forest so early in the morning?"

"I told them I'm a restless sleeper and someone told me the forest was the best place for early morning walks."

"You know, I really did like him. I don't think he was a grouch at all. I mean, the guy must have known he was dealing with a werewolf, he did his homework."

Sam raised a tired eyebrow at his brother. It was probably nearer ten before the boys were back at their cabin though, and no sooner had they crawled into bed, they drifted off into dreamless sleep. Needless to say, their hunt for clues in the Rangers cabin wasn't going to be happening until late afternoon.

When they finally did make it to the Ranger's office, after a couple of cold showers and a rushed breakfast, they were surprised to find it unlocked. In fact, it wasn't just unlocked; the front door was wide open.

They stepped over the threshold and quickly glanced round, Dean's eyes landing on a young redhead that wore a similar uniform to Ranger Gibbons. Only her uniform was smaller, tighter, hugging her body firmly. Dean watched her as she went about her business. She was temptation and she knew it. She caught Dean's reflection in the glass cabinet doors and with that look in her eyes, he knew she knew it. There was no shy blush as she turned around to look at the two handsome men who had entered the office.

"Can I help you?" She asked, her eyes dismissing Sam and instead watching Dean, who smiled.

Whoever this person was, Sam didn't like her. He stepped forward, moving his shoulder in front of Dean, as if denying her access to him. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

She rolled her grey eyes, "My names Charity, and in case you didn't notice the outfit, I work here."

"We thought that Ranger Gibbons was the only ranger."

"Well you thought wrong." Her temper rose, "You know, I should be at home curled up comfortably reading a book instead of taking this crap off you, whoever you are. I'm meant to be on holiday this week."

"Well, I'm so sorry that your colleague's death has ruined your plans." Sam's voice was laced with sarcasm and Dean looked at him in shock, after all he was normally the cocky sarcastic one that was about to get thrown out the door, not Sam.

"Hey, look. We didn't come for trouble. We were working on a case in town and Ranger Gibbons was helping us out. Yesterday he told us to come by today and he'd have some more paperwork and stuff that might be helpful. And well, we kinda heard the news but we need that paperwork and we thought we might be able to just come and pick it up." Dean had plenty of practice at diffusing dangerous situations like this over the years because of arguments between Sam and their father.

Charity took a deep breath and smiled at Dean, "Okay, did he say where it would be?"

"Actually, Charity," He tested the name, letting her see him tasting it on his lips, charm was probably going to be their best chance at this information, "He just said it was about and he'd have to dig it out."

"Well, this place is just full of paperwork. If you told me what it was, I could dig it out for you and you could come back tomorrow." She sighed briefly, once again completely ignoring Sam and concentrating on Dean.

"Ahh, well, we don't really know what it is. We were kinda hoping we'd know when we found it. Most I could tell you is it's information about those recent animal attacks."

She perked up, "Well, there you go, I can help you find the paperwork on that. I've just got a few jobs to finish up and then I can start looking. Don't know how long it'll take though and I wouldn't advise coming back after dark, not very safe around here so – come back tomorrow and I promise I will have something for you."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

"What was up with you in there?" Dean slapped Sam round the back of the head as they walked back to the Impala.

"I don't know. There was just something I didn't like about her."

"What, like the fact she was completely digging on your big brother but ignoring you?" Dean joked.

Sam didn't reply, just sulked.

"Look, we've got a couple of hours until the moon comes out, we can grab something to eat and then we'll stake out the place Gibbons was attacked."

"Fine." Sam muttered, "But what if nothing happens, or nothing happens near us? I don't think little Miss Charity will know to look for the kind of stuff we were gonna look for. We need to get in there when she isn't."

"Well what do you suggest? There's only two ways we'd get in there tonight, either you go look while I hunt or we both go look and forget about the hunt for tonight."

"Woah, what about you go look and I hunt? What happened to that option?"

"You were the one attacked, not me. I won't let you hunt alone."

"And I won't let you hunt alone either!" Sam's voice rose, how could his brother be so stupid, so overprotective? Didn't he understand that he was in just as much trouble? No, of course he didn't because Sam was being too much of coward to tell him.

"Then what? We let someone else get hurt while we do more research?"

"We'll give her a chance, okay? See what she comes up with which will probably be nothing usual."

During their mini evening meal, Dean tried several times to lighten Sam's mood up but the only times Sam even opened his mouth was to order his food and to ask Dean to pass the salt. By the time they set off for their second 'stake out', Dean was finding the silence deafening and was beginning to think he was in for a very long night.

Luckily, with it being declared as an animal attack, the only law enforcers about were there to stop people going into the forest, they themselves also staying out of it. Therefore, once the brothers got themselves into the forest and past the thickest part, they didn't expect any trouble, except maybe from the furry kind.

"Here little doggy, come on, come and see what daddy has for you. Big juicy walking meat meals, come on bitch, come and get some." Dean taunted the air softly, in a slightly singsong voice.

"Dean, we want to hear it before it hears us!" Sam warned.

Dean just shrugged, "Better it attack us then go after someone else."

They entered silence once again. This lasted for all of thirty seconds before Dean got bored, "Come on you bitch, howl at the mo – "A howl echoed through the trees, " – on or something… okay, didn't expect that to work."

The howl had sounded so close, so as quietly as was possible, the brothers, the young men, the hunters, ran towards their prey. Hoping to get to it before it moved on or found an unsuspecting victim.

They stopped running as they entered a small clearing, surely that howling had come from around here but there was no sign of anything, not even a normal wolf.

"You don't think it tricked us into this nice open area, do you?" the moon shone brightly down into the clearing, illuminating Dean as he spoke. Sam was frozen, he couldn't act, he couldn't move, he was in complete shock. This was the clearing that his vision happened in. Dean turned to look at him, those eyes… no, it wasn't possible.

"Sam?" Dean questioned but before Sam got a chance to answer, Dean saw the hulking figure hiding in the shadows, "Sam, get down!"

Sam didn't move, he was still frozen, his mind was buzzing, he hadn't even heard his brother speak. He barely even realised his brother had raised his gun.

The shadowed figure moved, circling them, all the while its eyes on the gun, it's eyes on Dean. Dean followed it with the gun, he cursed as he couldn't get a clear shot and Sam wasn't being much help. Dean edged his way towards Sam, gun still locked on the beast, the beast's eyes still locked on him.

"Sam? Come on Sam, get your head out the freakin' clouds and join me back on planet earth." Dean elbowed Sam. Sam's responded by staring up at the moon, this caused Dean to look at him momentarily and then also check the moon; see what was so interesting about it.

That had been a bad move. His eyes flicked back to where his gun was pointed, he cursed. The werewolf had moved. It had disappeared whilst he'd been distracted. He looked from side to side and couldn't see it anyway, so no doubt he was surprised as it shot up from behind him. It had leaped at him and sent him flying a few feet. Luckily, or unluckily, he somehow managed to land so he was facing upwards but then as the beast landed on top of him, it didn't help much.

It stared down into his face hungrily. It's amazingly light eyes staring, locked on his. Its claws dug deep into the flesh on his chest as it pinned him down. His gun had been knocked away from him. He struggled to move under the weight of this thing, but if he could just reach his ankle, he always kept a knife there, if he could just reach it.

A shot rang out through the forest, the werewolf looked up and Dean made his move. He managed to grab the knife but again, the werewolf pressed down on him. Sam had missed. Either that or one dart wasn't enough to knock a werewolf out. The claws dug in and Dean bit back a scream and before he even registered the second shot, he dug the knife into the thigh of the beast. It howled in pain and stared angrily as Dean.


	6. Bitten

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

Okay – first off, thank you for your encouragement and for reading!!!! I love you all! Seriously.

And now for my apologies – I'm late updating, I know. I shall make no excuses but shall simply say sorry instead and I hope that a couple extra paragraphs and Dean in danger will make up for it. Yes – Dean is in danger. Also – my apologies if this is rushed, I had a little trouble getting from scene to scene. But here you go…

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

6. Bitten

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The second shot rang clearly through the clearing. The beast recoiled, stumbling slightly, giving Dean the chance to push it off him and roll away from it. It glared at him, the tranquilisers were taking affect, Dean could tell.

"Sammy, shoot it again!" He called but it was up and running before his brother got the chance, still incredibly fast even with the drugs working their way through its system.

"Dean, you okay?" Sam knelt down next to his fallen brother.

"I'm fine, pass me my gun so we can go and finish this." Dean tried to stand up but man, his chest hurt like a son of…

"You're hurt, look at you, you're bleeding." Sam couldn't help but grimace as he helped his brother up, "It didn't bite you did it?"

"No, Sam, I'm fine, just a few scratches. Damn it, it ran off with knife." Dean surveyed Sam, okay, so he was unharmed, that meant it was okay to shout at him, "What the hell happened to you there Sam? You were off in dream land or something."

Sam flinched as the harsh words hit him, "My vision… it was here. This is where it happened, I just kinda lost myself. I am so sorry Dean; it could have got you…"

"Whatever… you said you were the one attacked in your vision so why'd the sucker go after me?"

"That wasn't the werewolf that attacked me." Sam said simply.

"You telling me there's more than one of these things?" Dean hobbled along next to his brother as they wandered back to the car, "Aw man, that's just great."

"Not yet." Sam spoke quietly, so quietly Dean barely even caught the words.

"Woah, what? What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Dean, my vision… there's something I didn't tell you. I thought it was just a coincidence but I'm not so sure now."

"Okay, that's cryptic." Dean spat, "What do you mean Sam?"

"It was bigger than the one we've just seen, and I really think we should just get the hell out of here before tomorrow night."

"If we leave, that werewolf could attack someone else."

"And if we stay it could turn you!"

Dean stopped hobbling and stared blankly at his brother, "What?"

"The werewolf in my vision Dean, it was you. I'm pretty sure of it now. The way that moon shone down on you… kind of ominous."

"You're vision got it wrong, that's all." Dean said, he started walking again, as if what Sam had just told him didn't affect him in the least.

"Dean, it didn't bite you tonight but if we come hunting for it again tomorrow… I just don't want to give it a chance to turn you, okay?"

"Fine." Dean said, "We won't come out tomorrow, but we're staying in town until we find out who it is and what we can do about it."

Sam smiled and Dean immediately felt guilty, he had deliberately worded it so he said 'we' because he wouldn't be breaking his agreement if he just came out alone to get it. Granted he'd be acting stupid, suicidal possibly and putting himself in danger but if he could get it before it got him or someone else, it would be worth it.

So with an injured member of the team, the hunters called it a night and made their way back to their cabin. Dean was still sulking and it took Sam ages to persuade him to let him look at his wounds. They weren't as bad as he had imagined and not enough to need hospital treatment but enough to cause Dean pain and that meant they needed treatment. So Sam treated them, Dean silently pouting.

"We're going to sleep and we're going to get up early and get to the Rangers cabin before that Charlene or whatever her name."

"Charity. Her name was Charity." Dean mumbled, pulling off his jeans and climbing into his bed, "It's not like you, not being able to remember someone's name."

"Yeah well, I didn't like her and I doubt I'll like her any better tomorrow." Sam switched the light off, "Night Dean."

"Night Sam."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

That had to be a bad sign, Dean taking it so well, being told that he was the werewolf in the vision that had attacked Sam, but Sam didn't want to think about that. Ignorance is bliss and he was happy to believe that Dean taking it so well was because Dean was just Dean and he always took things like that in his stride. He didn't want to think that this silent and accepting side of Dean had more to do with Dean's determination to get this job finished.

And, so Sam laid peacefully in ignorant bliss but Dean laid still in not so peaceful torment. The vision was wrong, simple as. Even if it wasn't wrong, they'd prevent it from coming true. There was no way he'd hurt his brother… there was no way he'd allow himself to because one of those things and hurt his brother.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

What they found when they arrived at the Rangers Cabin the next day was what they had expected to find previously - a locked door with no signs of life on the inside. Dean kept watch as Sam pick locked the door. It didn't take very long, after all it was a very basic lock.

"How long d'you reckon we've got?" Sam asked.

"Probably at least an hour – she's meant to be on holiday, no way she'll be getting up early."

"Not everyone lies in like you."

"Yeah well, not everyone gets up as early as you."

They were on opposite sides searching every place possible. By the time they met somewhere in the middle, they knew they were missing something. A lot of things actually because whilst is had only been a hunch that Gibbons had maybe researched who the werewolf was and they weren't sure if they'd actually find anything on that – they had at least expected to find a mention of the animal mutilations.

"Dean…" Sam began.

"I know."

"But there should at least be some reports."

"I know." Dean repeated, a little louder.

"Where are they?"

"Maybe Gibbons took 'em home with him."

"You sure that maybe Charity didn't take them?" Sam suggested.

"You just don't like her."

"I'm sure I at least saw a photo when we were in here the other day, but there's nothing now."

"I dunno, maybe she did take them and is waiting to give them to us."

"Or she's going to get rid of them. I still think she's kind of suspicious. I mean come on, it's after noon and she's still not here. Pretty long lie in."

Dean smiled, there was just something amusing about the way that chick managed to somehow bug Sam so much, even when she wasn't there, "Well, there's nothing here, so what now?"

Sam didn't reply at first, not until he looked at Dean with an almost guilty expression, "You know, I've kind of been thinking. I shot that thing yesterday – TWICE! Twice, Dean and the most it did was make it drowsy. You could have been – "

"Sam, it wasn't your fault." Dean interrupted.

"That's not where I'm going with this, I mean yeah if I hadn't been in a freaking daze…. But anyway, we need something stronger. Are those really the strongest things we've got?"

"No. We've got silver bullets, that'd bring the sucker to a stand still. But since we don't quite wanna go there yet…" Dean rolled his eyes as Sam sighed. "Look, we'll check the vets, they could have something. Dunno what use'll it'll do, seen as you made me promise that we weren't hunting tonight."

"Dean, my visions don't go that far into the future, maybe a week at the most. If you were bitten tonight – "

"I'd change the first day of the full moon next month so bang goes that theory college boy. The only difference in getting bitten tonight or next month is what, a day or two of full moons? Another thing about your usual visions, they normally involve the demon, the big bad but the only monster we got is a werewolf."

Dean made sense. He actually did make sense when it came to stuff like this a lot of the time but Dean making sense was likely to put him in danger for the majority of the time that he was right. Maybe it came from Dean knowing Sam better than Sam knew himself – sometimes.

They agreed to disagree and left the Rangers Cabin and after a short drive arrived at the vets. They weren't in there as long as the last time, they basically got what they came for and left. Dean was rushing Sam for some reason and though he'd tell Sam that he just wanted to get back to the cabin, he wouldn't mention how it was so he could distract him and make his get away so he could catch the werewolf.

Dean had it planned out and up until the point where he met the werewolf in the forest, his plan was going perfectly. First of all, while Sam busied himself in the cabin, Dean slipped a few of those newer stronger tranqs into his pocket, and then he told his little brother that he completely stank. Sam objected but Dean had given him that older brother gaze and told him to get his butt into the shower whilst he went for food.

That was fine. Sam was being naïve and believed him. So he didn't question when the Impala started up and left him alone in the cabin. Half an hour later when Dean still hadn't returned with food, that's when he started questioning it. That's when he realised Dean had lied to him and that when he started praying to God that he wasn't too late.

Dean stood in the clearing and it wasn't until he was engulfed in shadow that he realised there was a presence behind him. He cursed himself, he should have known if there had been something else there with him. This was when he realised things weren't going according to plan.

"I hope to God that's you Sammy." Dean said, his voice only breaking slightly.

The hot breath on his neck was his only reply.

"If this if your idea of wooing me… I'm not really a full moon strolling –" But he couldn't finish, the rest of his smart alec words were engulfed in the loud agony filled cry that came tearing from his throat.

Since he realised his plan had gone wrong, he'd expected this. He just didn't expect it to hurt so much. The teeth latched onto that part between his neck and his shoulder, digging deep into the flesh just above his collar bone. He screamed with the pain, the pain of knowing that either way he was screwed – whether it killed him or whether he survived, he wasn't getting out of this unmarked.


	7. Infected

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

I'm gonna start by saying I love you all for reading and I love the reviews you send me. It's been nearly a fortnight since I updated – part of me blames work and the other part of me blames how hard it was getting this chapter from my head and into a document. But here it is – chapter 7. It's short chapter so again, sorry.

And once again, we left as Dean was in danger – does he make it out?

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

7. Infected

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The teeth dug deeper and in the split second he had to decide what to do, his left hand grabbed the tranq gun from his other numbing hand, twisting it around his back to let out a single shot. The noise fell on momentarily deaf ears, Dean's mind far too busy to think past getting away from this thing,

The beast released its grip and Dean fell to his knees, blood pouring from his newest wound. He took great rattling breaths, trying to compose himself so he was ready for the next attack but the way he was feeling, he doubted he would be.

_Stupid idiot! _He scorned himself. _Should have listened to Sam._

He scrambled forward and turned around to face his attacker. It was already nearly on him, its wounds from the previous night and the upgraded tranq dart not hindering its speed at all. He raised the gun again, but unlike his predator, his body was not responding how he wanted it to, how he needed it to. Was the wound really that bad? Or was this the work of the venom?

He tried to pull the trigger but the gun felt so much heavier than it should have and he'd only miss the target anyway.

A loud shot rang out. The werewolf stumbled.

Dean's eyes searched frantically behind the stumbling beast, someone was with him in the clearing, someone besides a great hulking killer who had just tried to eat him.

He begged his eyes to focus but they refused to do so. In fact, his whole body was refusing to work and he just felt so unbelievably tired. He could barely even feel the pain in his shoulder as the darkness crept in on him.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Sam had hit his target and the improvement in the tranqs were clear as it stumbled, finding it hard to stand. Though they still weren't good enough he determined, seeing the tranq his brother had managed to plant into its side. If it took two to make it dizzy, a third one should definitely knock it flat on its face. He aimed his gun but he couldn't shoot, the blood dripping from its jaws terrifying him, Dean must be bleeding – badly.

As Sam's eyes searched for his brother, it was all the time the beast needed to make its escape. It would have to do without its food tonight because as the tranqs worked their way through its system for the second night running, there was too great a risk that it wouldn't be fast enough to deal with the second hunter. So it fled. Sam tried to stop it, but the third shot just missed.

"Dean?" He called ahead of him, to the lame unmoving body that he could barely see, "Oh God, Dean! Answer me!"

There was no answer, no gasps, nothing to indicate life. Sam forced back that thought and knelt down on the ground next to his brother, his shaking hand moving towards his brother's bloody neck to check for a pulse.

It was there. It was weak, but it was there.

Right, so he was breathing and alive, next step was to stop that bleeding. The front wound was worse, that much was clear but both probably needed stitches. _Okay, gotta get Dean to the car._ He thought.

So with the strength he never knew he had, he slowly but surely managed to gather Dean up and get him back to the Impala and in turn, back to the cabin where the task of cleaning and stitching Dean up would begin.

Laying Dean on the bed, he fetched the needed equipment and cut Deans shirt off. Dean was gonna be so pissed about that when he woke up because he would wake up. The wound was not a pretty sight, it looked infected but surely it couldn't be, not this soon and besides, there was no yellowing, just a slight black look to the raised veins around it. Sam looked at his unconscious brother and asked him silently to forgive him as he picked up a bottle and poured the substance all over his brother's shoulder.

It smoked on contact and Dean's body tensed. He knew he was too late though, the holy water would probably do nothing to stop the infection, especially since it had most likely already spread. So with a heavy heart, Sam got to work on his brothers newest wound.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Dean slept through the first night peacefully, occasionally moaning when he changed positions or applied pressure to his wound. It wasn't until mid next day that Sam really started worrying. His big brother still hadn't shown any signs of waking up and Sam was regretting not taking him to the hospital, and to make matters worse, Dean was red hot and shaking more than a rattlesnake's tail. It must have been at about three o'clock that Sam tried to waking Dean, and for the briefest moment at four o'clock, Dean opened his eyes long enough to be forced to drink some water and some horse tablet thing that would supposedly help.

Under normal circumstances, Sam would just let Dean rest and allow his body to fight off whatever had invaded his system – and though these were far from normal circumstances (being that this was the first time either brother had been infected by a werewolf), he decided that would be the route he'd take.

Dean's condition neither worsened nor improved over the next couple of days, though he did wake up intermittently but was never truly 'with it' as Sam made him drink more water and take more tablets. What made things more frustrating was that Bobby was not answering his phone or answering any of the messages that Sam had left.

Sam was determined to find a cure, because there was no point denying it. It was four days later and Dean was without any doubt getting better. He was no longer shivering and his body temperature was just about normal. But bad news came with this good news, the bad news being that the wound on Dean's shoulder had began to heal. Not just scabbing over and slowly healing like a normal humans, no, this wound looked like it was just the remains of some childhood accident that was no less life threatening than a feather.

As Sam inspected this strange occurrence, that's when Dean decided it was time to wake up. His throat was raw, his breath stank and he had a bad taste in his mouth, not to mention that headache throbbing behind his eyes from lying down too much. But Dean slowly opened his heavy eyes and focused on his brother.

"Sammy?"

"Hey big bro, how you feeling?"

"Like I've been bitten by a freaking werewolf."

Well that answered Sam's next question, but it didn't stop him asking it, "What do you remember?"

"Well, my name's Dean Winchester, I was born January 24th –"

"Dean, I'm serious!" Sam warned. How could his brother be so cocky after he'd been asleep for the better part of the last few days?

"Okay, okay, don't get your panties in a twist. I remember going hunting for that bitch but it got the drop on me, came up from behind. I can't believe I was so stupid. It bit me but I shot it and then… then things get a little fuzzy. There was another shot but I didn't see where it came from. That's it I guess."

As soon as Dean had said the word 'stupid', Sam had wanted to jump in and shout at his brother, but he resisted the urge and decided it was best to find out the answer to his question first. And now that he had the answer, and as Dean was well enough to be smarmy and cocky – Sam decided he was well enough to be shouted at.

"Okay, so tell me 'cause I'm dying to know – Just what the hell were you thinking? Hunting a Goddamn werewolf by yourself?"

Deans gaze dropped, he hadn't even realised his eyes hadn't left his brother until now. But he couldn't look Sam in the face. Why had he gone hunting by himself? Oh yeah, that was it. It seemed so dumb now and it felt even dumber to voice it out loud to Sam. "I wanted to prove your vision wrong. I thought that if I could just get it over with, we could just move on and get away."

Sam had to admit that it was the lamest excuse he ever heard but it left him speechless. He could think of nothing to say to Dean and he couldn't decide whether he wanted to be angry, full of pity or understanding.

"So what do we do now?" Dean broke the five minute silence that separated the brothers.

Sam had no idea, and just as he was about to voice this, his phone began to vibrate loudly on the table top.


	8. Myth and Legend

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

Hey amazing! Not as long as the last but I've actually managed to get chapter 8 finished pretty quickly. Thanks for reading still and for your patience and also thanks for the kind reviews. This chapter is a ray of light for the boys – or then again, maybe it's a train? The next chapter has more action in and more wolf, I promise.

Okay, so the phone was ringing but who was calling?

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

8. Myth and Legend

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Both brothers looked over to the vibrating phone which had now started playing music. Leaving Dean in bed, Sam went over and answered it with an unsure 'hello?'.

A gruff voice on the other end answered, "Sam?"

Sam let out a sigh of relief, "Thank God Bobby, I've been trying to get hold of you for ages."

"So I've noticed, what's this all about?"

"Werewolves – we need to find a cure."

"A cure? I know you're a soft touch but if this things been killing long enough for you to find a trail, there'll be little human left in it, even when it's in its human form."

"Wait, what?"

"You didn't know? When a person is infected Sam, they change at full moon into a full wolf but they change personality as well. Overtime the wolf takes over and the person becomes evil. The thing your hunting probably knows what its doing and what it's done and I bet it feels no remorse."

"So you're saying we should have just killed it when we had the chance?" Sam felt horrified, he'd been the one with the bad conscience about killing the werewolf and now Dean was suffering.

In the silence, something seemed to click with Bobby and he spoke cautiously but with a warning tone, "Sam, tell me he hasn't. Tell me that brother of yours hasn't gone and got himself bitten?"

Sam bit his lip and the silence echoed even louder, telling Bobby all he needed to know, "Oh God, I'm not much of werewolf person, I'm more demons. You're Daddy used to go to Caleb for stuff like that. Sure, ask me to hunt one and I can probably be useful, but a cure? I don't know if there is one."

"Please, there has to be."

"Best I can do is to call a few contacts; you see werewolf lore has been distorted so much through horror movies and such that it's hard to tell fact from fiction. There is this legend I heard but I wanna talk to someone else before I get your hopes up."

"Whatever you can do, just please."

"But Sam, you have to understand one thing. If we can't find anything, you know you'll have to kill him."

Sam felt a lump rising in his throat, "I don't think I could."

"I'll call you back as soon as possible."

With that, the phone call was ended and it wasn't until Dean spoke that Sam woke from his daze and stopped staring at his phone.

"Sam? What did he say?" Dean had watched his brother pacing the room whilst talking on the phone, his ears strained in hope that he might catch one or two words. He was surprised that he could actually hear most of the conversation, though whether this was a good sign... In fact, he only asked Sam what had been said so as not to arouse suspicion.

"He said he'll call us back, he's checking out a few things."

Dean hung his head; he knew that was all Sam was going to say. He knew Sam would mention nothing about Dean turning evil if there was no cure, he also knew Sam wouldn't bring up the matter of killing him.

"Well, on the plus side – you always wanted a dog." Dean smirked lazily, but that just made Sam angry.

Sam threw his phone on his bed, "Damn it Dean! You've been bitten by a werewolf! This is no laughing matter."

"I know but now we have Bobby trying to find something, he always comes through for us."

"And if he can't? What then? What'll happen then?"

Dean didn't want to say it, he couldn't find the words. After the burden his father had put on his shoulders, he couldn't find the strength to lay a similar burden on his brother. Turning evil was not an option; they had to find a cure so he could look out for Sam.

"We'll find a cure. There's nothing else to it."

Sam flung himself onto his bed next to his phone, "Think if I throw a stick you'll fetch it?"

Dean glared at his brother and found himself almost growling, "You even try it and I'll stick it where the sun don't shine."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

They didn't know how long they'd have to wait for Bobby to ring back, they wouldn't have been surprised if had taken him several days but Bobby couldn't help but feel a deep endearing commitment to these boys, John Winchesters boys and that was enough to make him find out everything he needed as soon as possible.

In fact, in the time it took for him to get the wanted information, the boys had only managed to grab a shower each and were halfway through a half decent meal when Bobby called back. Eagerly, Sam answered the phone, hope showing in his voice as he practically shouted down the line, demanding an answer.

"Woah, not so loud, I'm not that old you know." Bobby barked at Sam, "Now look, I've got some news but before I share, I've got to tell you that no one has successfully done this before, either died in the process or something."

"What do we have to do? Is there some sort of mix, with wolfs bane and that?"

"Don't be stupid." Sam could feel Bobby rolling his eyes, he also heard a snicker from Dean who muttered 'College boy ain't so smart afterall'.

"Then what?"

"You're not gonna like this, but there's this one myth that if you kill the werewolf that infected you, you can be cured."

Silence.

"So if we just stayed on this hunt and finished the job, Dean should be fine?"

"Should be, but that's no guarantee."

"I guess we'll just have to see." Sam couldn't hide his disappointment, if there was a chance for things to go wrong, chances are they would.

"Do you need me? I mean, I just gotta finish a case up but if you boys need my help I could make it to you in no time."

"Thanks for the offer Bobby, but I think we've got to finish this one on our own. We just gotta find out who the werewolf is and kill them."

"Good luck Sam and let me know what happens."

There was a beat before Bobby spoke again, "If it doesn't work Sam – we'll find another way." Because there was no way Bobby could let a werewolf destroy two of the best hunters he'd ever known, not when their lives had already had so much tragedy.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.


	9. Dances With Wolves

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

I really love you people for reading and for reviewing. Bad news – the stories nearly over, good news – it's still got a couple of chapters left to go and some tense moments to come. Basically what I'm saying is it depends whether you're a glass half empty or half full kinda person but here is chapter 9.

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**9. Dances with wolves**

**.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.**

Nineteen days had passed since the werewolf had bitten Dean. Time was running out. Dean was fine, he was great even, better than great and it scared him to feel that way. He didn't want to be a furry psycho killer and he didn't want to hurt Sam either. He was restless though, and hungry. There was nothing to eat in their cabin but bird food and Sam hadn't let him out of his sight since the incident. What Dean really needed was a good cold drink…

He looked over at Sam, who sat staring at the laptop screen. He'd been in front of that damned thing ever since that phone call with Bobby, and probably before that too but since Dean was asleep during most of that, he couldn't be sure. It was driving him nuts, Sam searching for clues as to who the werewolf was but never coming up with anything. It wasn't that Dean didn't care because he did, but he failed to see what evidence they could find on the World Wide Web.

"We need to ask questions." Dean said, "You know, interview a few people, see what they have to say."

"And what do you suggest asking? 'Does anyone you know happen to sprout hairs and howl at the moon when it's full?'" Sam's reply was so thick with sarcasm that it cut into Dean, making him flinch.

"Look, Sam, we're not finding anything worthwhile online. We need to try a different approach."

"You mean _I'm_ not finding anything worthwhile."

"Fine, _you're _not finding anything worthwhile but _you're_ also not letting _me_ out of your sight, or even out of this damned cabin."

"That's not true." Sam protested, though in Dean's opinion, rather weakly.

"You practically burned a whole through the bathroom door waiting for me to emerge."

Sam opened his mouth to argue but found he had nothing to say but a lame and childish, "Did not."

"Is it because you're so concerned for me or because you don't want me to go all furry and attack someone?" Dean couldn't keep the accusation from his voice; it had been playing on his mind too much over the past couple of days and he was almost sure that every now and then he'd catch a glimpse of fear in Sam's eyes when their eyes met. But was Sam afraid for him, or afraid of him? Dean was afraid of himself. Every now and then he'd get these 'feelings' and they just didn't feel right, they didn't feel like they were his.

"You're not turning into a werewolf Dean, I won't let it happen. I'm gonna find that damned son-of-a-bitch who bit you and kill them and this will all be over."

"Then please, tonight, take a break. Take your brother to a bar. I'm climbing the walls here Sam, I need out. I need fresh air."

Sam had no way to fight it, no matter what he said or what he did he knew Dean would be going to a bar tonight with or without him and Sam just decided that it would be best if it was the former. Surprisingly, out of all the bars they passed, Dean picked the one that upon entering they found to have a small dance floor.

It also had something else, something of interest for Dean and annoyance for Sam. It had the red headed, grey eyed and fiery tempered Charity sitting drinking at the bar.

"So this is where she was hiding when she stole those missing papers from the office." Sam accused, he was about to carry on when he saw her suddenly look over at them and smile.

"Dean!" Well over at Dean anyway, she kind of grimaced when she saw Sam.

"Charity? What are you doing here?" Dean asked as they walked over and joined her at the bar.

"Having a few drinks. Where have you guys been?" Oh, so they were both included in this statement, Sam noticed.

"Been held up for a few days."

"For a few days? It's been weeks since I saw any trace of you. I thought you up and left town. I've been waiting for you to show up in the office."

"We did show up, the day after we met you when you said you'd be there _with_ the stuff we needed." Sam spat.

She smiled at Sam, "We really got off on the wrong foot, I'm so sorry. I was having a really bad day that day. Things just weren't going how I planned. I know I didn't make it back the next day but I guess it was vertigo or something but I just couldn't get myself out of bed. That's ages ago now though."

Sam just listened in stunned silence, unsure what to make of her 'apology'.

"If you boys still want that stuff, I've got it back at my place. I didn't want to keep it in the office." She was back to focusing on Dean now, probably happy with how she'd caught Sam off guard but he still listened intently, "If you want to swing by sometime shortly, I'll be happy to give you what you need."

"Oh I bet you will." Dean smiled.

"Dance with me Dean?" She asked, her eyes pleading.

Dean smiled and shook his head, "I don't dance, can't dance. I've got two left feet, honestly."

"I swear, if you make me ask one of the locals to dance I'll make you regret it."

From the corner of his eye, he saw Sam smirk as he was dragged off his stool and out onto the meagre dance floor that stood empty in this broken down bar. As if she'd planned it, the once racing music turned slower and more passionate.

Her hand slipped delicately into his, her soft skin caressing his own. As she turned to face him and he stared into her grey eyes, a mix of emotions waved through him and he became entangled in them, unsure which were his and which were the wolves. He saw himself reflected in her eyes, the lust so clear. He would have taken her right here right now if he could have. But there was something else, amongst that lust, hunger. He would have bitten into that soft tantalizing skin and would have savoured the taste. He licked his lips and smiled.

They were moving now, he deliberately kept her close. Teasing her as she teased him, his hands moving over her, their bodies moving to the beat. He thrust his pelvis into hers as she moved closer into him and they moved in sync. Their lips so close but never touching, breathing in each others arousal.

A low growl escaped his throat and the music blurred, his mind going fogging as if he were having a waking dream. He could feel wind upon his face; he could smell the fresh air and could taste the temptation. He was running, heading towards that clearing, brightly lit by the moon, he could hear his breathing and someone else's, something else's.

"No…" He whispered and pulled away, tore away. He was gone from the dance floor before all the staring eyes realised their entertainment for the night was finished. He could feel them watching him, following his movements but he was out the door before he had chance to react angrily at them.

Sam joined him outside within seconds, coats in hand and a worried look on his face.

"Dean? What the hell? I thought you said you couldn't dance?"

"That wasn't me..." He looked guiltily up at his brother, "It was the wolf."


	10. Symptoms

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

And now we have chapter 10!! Woohoo! Yet another chapter that went spiralling off on its own. Anyway, here you go. Chapter 11 has notes written down about it so if I even if I have to resort to desperate measures I will get it written as soon as possible.

PS – I am so happy with the response I got to the dancing scene so thank you guys so much.

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10. Symptoms

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"What do you mean?" Sam asked carefully.

"I meant exactly what I said." Dean looked away; barely able to contain the growl that threatened to escape with his words.

"I'm sorry Dean, I just don't exactly understand. How can it be the wolf?"

"I don't expect you to understand, just trust me. We need to leave."

"We're not going anywhere until you tell me what you mean."

"We're running out of time Sam. I was bitten on the last day and the next full moon is in what, a week? Surely you weren't stupid enough to believe that everything would be fine until the actual full moon?" Dean immediately felt a pang of guilt, his brother's eyes full of pain after Dean's venomous words.

"What are you saying Dean?"

"I'm saying I can feel it inside me, I can feel the wolf and I don't know how long before I lose control."

"You've been hiding this from me?" Sam stared at his brother, who just remained silent, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"There's been nothing to tell. Okay, I've had a few feelings and my senses have been working overtime but that's it, or that was it until in there. God, I thought I was going to lose myself Sammy."

"Maybe it was just that once, maybe it won't happen again."

Dean rubbed his hand over his face, "Just get in the car Sam, we're getting an early night and I don't feel like driving."

Dean was relinquishing the wheel? Things must be bad. How had he not noticed? How could he not even think about the possibilities? Sam took the keys from Dean's jacket and both brothers clambered into the car. With a sigh, Sam tossed the jackets onto the back seat and turned the key, "We'll find a way to sort this Dean. We've just got to find the one who bit you."

As the sleek black car pulled away from the bar, Charity leaned against the doorframe, a smile lingering on her lips as her thoughts wandered, he was kind of cute after all, okay, he was more than that, either way it was a shame they didn't finish their dance, maybe next time. She turned back into the chaotic noise of the bar.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The drive was silent, Dean's face was set, his features hard. Sam kept glancing at him from the corner of his eye. Three times he opened his mouth to say something and all three times he saw Dean tense. This was getting ridiculous. He was worried about his brother but Dean just wasn't going to let him in. When they pulled up outside the cabin, they sat unmoving for several minutes before Sam finally opened the door and climbed out. He was sure he heard Dean curse before also getting out the car.

Feeling mentally and physically exhausted, Dean just shook off his jeans and got into bed, all he wanted was sleep. He just needed to relax. He felt angry with himself, he felt angry with Sam, he just felt plain angry and he wanted to lash out but he had to control it because the nearest thing to lash out at was his little brother.

"Night Dean." Sam muttered; following Dean's lead of getting into bed but he pulled his laptop in with him.

"Night Sam." The reply barely a whisper.

Dean's sleep was far from uneventful. He moaned gently as the familiar feeling of his mind fogging crept over him. He could once again feel wind, he hadn't even realised how warm he was until it cooled him. He ran into it, ran through the thick brush towards the open clearing where the moon shone down once more. A scent travelled through the air and he wet his lips in anticipation. Just before the opening, he stopped and looked forward, tasting the fear and longing for the kill of his prey. The body lay motionless on the ground, a pool of blood surrounding it and he felt himself smirk, ready for his meal.

Whether it was the particular loud snore that Sam had just made or the intense feeling of hunger that had made him wake up made no difference because as soon as he was awake, he ran straight towards the bathroom, locked the door and kneeled over the toilet, spewing what little food he had in his system back up. He didn't even look as he flushed the toilet so he never saw the blood mingled in, he never tasted it either - all he could taste was the bile.

With shaky hands and pale features, he splashed his face with cold water and rinsed his mouth out. It was then he saw the blood. Fear rushed through, had he somehow hurt Sam? He unlocked the door and opened it ever so slightly; his eyes landed on Sam who appeared completely unharmed as he rolled over in his sleep and fought a loosing battle with the bed sheets.

Then where was the blood from? But his question was answered almost immediately as he began violently coughing, spurting droplets of blood over his hands which had covered his mouth just in time. He closed and relocked the bathroom door. It was his blood? But how? He wasn't injured, not internally… was he?

A small gasp escaped his lips before he managed to quieten it, the cause of this sudden gasp was the rush of pain shooting through his shoulder and echoing through every other body part. It was the virus. There was no other reason for it. He just hoped it wouldn't last for long because there was no way he wanted Sam to know.

Before he could even stop it, the pain sent him to the floor and knocked the wind out of him. He coughed again, spraying the floor with his blood and he put one hand against the cold tiled floor to steady himself as he tried to regain control of his breathing. What was happening to him?

"Dean?"

And as quick as everything came on, it was gone. So he was left kneeling confusedly on the floor as Sam gently knocked on the bathroom door.

"Dean, you okay?"

Dean took a deep breath and called out, "Yeah, Sam. Course I am."

"Then you wanna let me in?" His voice was laced with disbelief.

"You wanna let me finish first?" He half joked, trying to avoid the oncoming argument. As he spoke, he began cleaning up any 'evidence', such as the blood droplets. He then unlocked the bathroom door and stalked back over to his bed.

"What's wrong?" Sam said, glancing around the bathroom and then back to his brother.

"Nothing's wrong Sam."

But by morning Sam's suspicions were confirmed and he knew for definite that there was something wrong. He knew this because when he came back with coffee, Dean barely responded, merely rolling onto his other side to avoid the light and cold that came through the door, not to mention he had an extremely high temperature.

"So what's the verdict doctor." Dean croaked out as he opened his eyes to find Sam hovering over him.

"You're really sick Dean. Maybe we should get you to a hospital."

Dean shook his head, though he wished he hadn't, it felt thick and heavy, "They wouldn't be able to do anything. You know what this is just as well as I do."

"And what's that?"

"It's the virus, the wolf. It knows that it's nearly full moon and it's fighting for control."

"How do you know that? How do we know that you haven't got just a normal non supernatural infection?"

Dean looked away; he wasn't going to tell Sam about the dream but he also knew that he didn't have to; Sam was just dealing with the denial.

"I hate to ask this Sam and I feel guilty as hell about it, but I could sure go for a steak right about now."

Sam smiled and tried to make light of the situation, "Rare?" but when Dean didn't reply and didn't meet his eyes, he realised that was exactly how his brothers wanted it.


	11. Countdown

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

Okay, so this one's a little lengthy, void of action but I finally reveal the truth… which isn't really a huge surprise but anyway, here's the next update. I have two to three chapters left to write, so I best get moving.

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**11. Countdown**

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Sam left the room to go for a walk after he'd managed to get hold of quite a juicy steak. He had the feeling that Dean wouldn't want him to see him eating it, and if he was honest, he didn't want to watch as his brother showed more animalistic tendencies. He didn't want to acknowledge the fact that in a week's time, Dean would be turning into a werewolf unless they could somehow stop it.

He carefully planned his walk in his head, he was going to take at least an hour, preferably more because he knew that Dean would probably refuse to eat the steak at first, just like he said he would do when Sam first brought him it, but in the end the hunger would win. Sam just hoped that when the time was right, Dean wouldn't give into the hunger but right now, Sam needed his brother strong and he couldn't help but think that Dean feeding would sedate the wolf and he would start to feel better.

After finishing the steak, Dean sat on the bathroom floor next to the toilet waiting for the moment that he'd bring it all back up. He didn't want to, he'd enjoyed it - as much as he hated to admit it, - but the guilt and anxiety he felt was so strong that he thought that alone might make him sick. It became clear to him after half an hour of sitting on the cold floor that nothing was going to happen, so he made his way back to his bed.

He glanced over at the clock; it seemed Sam had been gone a pretty long time. It was nearly four o'clock, where could the boy be? Dean just couldn't focus though, his eyes felt so heavy and his mind rested. Surely it would be okay if he just took a nap, he wouldn't sleep for long. Hopefully he wouldn't dream either. So he allowed himself to drift and within minutes he was fast asleep.

He never heard Sam coming in and throwing himself onto the other bed; he was too far into the darkness that came with deep sleep. Sam lay there for several minutes before checking on Dean, placing his hand on his brother's head, sighing in relief as he noticed the fever was going down and would probably be gone before the night was even through. He glanced at the empty table where the meat had once sat and knew that it was doing its trick, keeping the wolf at bay.

Sam let Dean just sleep through the night, though as Dean slept peacefully, dreaming of nothing, Sam stared restlessly at the laptop screen. After glancing at the date and calculating in his mind, five days left until the first day, he finally made a decision. He was going to go back to the ranger's cabin in hope to find that missing piece of information that they may have overlooked. But he wouldn't make it there tonight or tomorrow because he was far too tired and if he was going to find what he needed, he had to be alert and ready. Besides, Dean had turned the alarm off which had rudely awoken him, causing them both to sleep in until nearly two o'clock in the afternoon.

The most the brothers had chance to do when they finally started their day, was to plan ahead and grab a few bites to eat - Dean eating another steak, though not so rare this time. So they planned, Sam was going to go to the ranger's cabin and take another look around, whilst Dean was going to visit Charity, stop her from going to the cabin, and they'd meet back in their room.

And with four days left, the plan was put into action. Dean dropped Sam off at the office and drove towards Charity's, whose address had been quite easy to find.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

The first thing Sam noticed about the office was the layer of dust that had collected, he wasn't a professional when it came to dust and other tiny particles like that but he was pretty sure it was a sure sign that no one had been around for awhile. This made Sam wonder if he and Dean had been the last ones here, but surely Charity needed to come by, it was her job after all.

It took him twice as long as last time, with him working solo but he got through the office eventually. There was nothing, just like the time before. He closed his eyes and sighed in frustration. There had to be something else.

He moved towards the door, accidentally kicking the bin over on his way, leading him to slap his forehead with his hand and cry out a 'Stupid!' because there was one place Dean and Sam hadn't checked before and Sam still hadn't checked it. He cleaned up his messy evidence and left the cabin, circling around back towards the outside larger bins. There was an old silver can that look oddly suspicious, or maybe that was just Sam being paranoid but that was the first place he decided to look.

As he lifted the lid and he wasn't disappointed at his discovery. It was mostly black. Someone had been burning things. Amongst the ashes, there were some bits of paper that had somehow managed to survive in a slightly reasonable and maybe even readable condition. One of these bits of paper contained several names, one circled with a red pen.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

Charity's house looked kind of cosy but it just didn't appeal to Dean. He wasn't a cosy guy, he didn't go for that type of stuff and he probably never would. She opened the door almost immediately after he'd knocked, a grin immediately worked its way onto her face.

"Dean?" She said, as if she were genuinely shocked. Dean smiled sheepishly in reply, "Well, why don't you come in? I have a couple of cold beers if you fancy one."

"Yeah, sure. Beer sounds like a good idea."

He followed her into the house and she led him into the living room.

"You look absolutely knackered, what have you been doing?" She pouted, concern lacing her voice but not showing in her eyes.

"Just research. We're still working on that case, you know with the animal attacks. Kind of fell ill for a bit though."

"Well, you just make yourself comfy and I'll get the beers."

Dean could think of a lot of ways to keep Charity busy while his brother searched for clues but he didn't want to stay any longer than he needed to, his hunger paining him. He busied himself, wandering around the room, staring at the various ornaments and pictures. He did this until he came to a knife that sat on one of the surfaces. He picked it up to get a better look.

"You a hunting girl?" He called.

"Not so much." She entered the room, a bottle in either hand, "Why you ask?"

"Just this seems like something a hunter would use." He held the knife up.

"Really? I found it on one of my rounds, was waiting for someone to claim it."

Dean raised his eyebrow at the thing, there was no mistaking it. This was definitely the one he had used to stab the werewolf.

"You can have it if you want. Found it nearly a month ago, and there was a rule once about if it hasn't been claimed in a month, so it's yours if you want. Of course, the rule was never made official but what no one knows can't hurt them."

"Thank you." He said simply, taking the beer in the hand that didn't hold the knife.

"You know, we never did finish that dance."

"No we didn't." He admitted, but he wanted the topic to stop there. All those feelings already rising up again, though not to the same intensity. The hunger burning.

"So what do you think? Wanna dance?"

"Not really."

She moved over to the CD player and pressed a couple of buttons before the same song from the other night began to play and she started to move seductively. He could feel the wolf stirring but he knew he couldn't let it win, he had to fight it and so with his inner strength he shook his head and told her no. Her sad eyes followed him as he set the bottle down.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have come in the first place."

"Please." She said, placing her hand on his arm to stop him leaving, her eyes pleading but they also held an intense amount of anger just bubbling below the surface, "I want you."

"No." He said and walked away from her, out of her house and towards the car. His mind was racing, placing things together and whatever arrangement it put all those little details in; they all came to the same conclusion.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

When he arrived back at the cabin, he found to some surprise that Sam was already there. He glanced at the clock, had he really spent that much time at Charity's?

Sam looked up as Dean entered the cabin; he was sitting at the table and nearly jumped when Dean practically shouted.

"Like a dog to a bitch in heat!"

"What?" Sam asked, shocked slightly by the outburst.

"She's the werewolf. She's the one we're looking for." He replied, a little exasperated.

Sam looked down at the papers in front of him, "I kind of figured that when I found this."

Dean walked over to the table and looked at the burnt piece of paper his brother handed him and barely readable, he managed to make out the name Charity, circled with red pen.

"It's Ranger Gibbons list of 'suspects'." Sam sighed.

"So she's been toying with us, she knew who we were from the start and she's been playing us, playing me! Why the hell do you dance with someone you tried to kill?"

"Maybe she likes the idea of having a mate."

Dean simply shot Sam a look that said 'shut up before I eat you' and Sam rolled his eyes, "It was just a suggestion."

"Well, it ain't gonna help us. Now we know who it is, we have to decide what to do about it."

"We kill her. Simple as." But it was far from simple.

"So we just go waltzing into her house and pump her full of silver?" At this comment Sam sighed, since when had Dean started using his brain instead of jumping straight in.

Sam sat in silence whilst Dean paced the room grunting every now and then; he finally ended up blurting out something that had obviously been on his mind since discovering the truth about Charity, "I just can't believe you were right about her. The first time we met her in that office. I bet she doesn't even work there, she just used it as a way to get rid of Ranger Gibbons' notes."

Sam was thoughtful, thinking back to that day, "You know, she had her eye on you then. She wouldn't stop watching you, looking you up and down, as if she was measuring you up. Maybe it wasn't just luck or good skill that stopped her from killing you. What if she did want to infect you, from the beginning?"

"I don't care what she wants Sam. I've got four days left and we have to come up with a way to get her to someplace where we can kill her."

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.


	12. Caged

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

Short but sweet… here's the next chapter!

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**12. Caged**

**.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.**

_I've got four days left._ That's what he had said. Sam couldn't help but notice. He looked away for the merest seconds, contemplating his brothers wording. Surely, after revealing the whole truth about the vision Dean would understand that it affected both of them, unless he was planning on doing something if their time ran out.

"Dean…" Sam started.

"Don't." Dean said, shaking his head. "Look, I'm sorry. I just feel really screwed up right now. We'll do this, if it means shooting her in broad daylight and then making a run for it, we'll sort this out."

"I know."

And if struggling to come up with a plan for somehow kidnapping and killing their new werewolf friend wasn't hard enough, just as they thought they'd worked things out by the next morning – they received an unexpected and unwanted call from Bobby. Calls from Bobby weren't normally unwanted but when they came along with bad news, they became so.

Basically, Bobby had just had a call from one of his contacts concerning that werewolf issue he'd asked about before. The contact had told Bobby that he'd left out something pretty important in the mythical cure. And it was something that was going to delay the brothers a further few days. In order for the cure to actually supposedly work – Charity would have to be in wolf form when they killed her.

"Well this just sucks out loud. We could have had this over and done with." Dean complained, running a hand threw his hair.

"Okay, so we'll just have to delay our plan a couple of days."

"And tie her up in a chair until she turns? Ain't that a little dangerous?"

"Aren't you forgetting the originally plan? The vets? We'll take her there until she changes and then we'll end this."

"Okay, yeah but what about me? I'll be changing too Sam."

"We'll put you in another cage and we'll see what happens."

It all sounded so simple. Sam would lure Charity out the house, saying Dean had been bitten by a snake and was in pretty bad shape. It wasn't the best plan but as she was a 'ranger', she should know how to deal with things like that and she should be unable to refuse them help. He'd take her to the vets where Dean was because that's where it happened and they figured they might have whatever they needed there.

But things never ran smoothly for the Winchesters. The plan was to say the least, one of the worst they had ever come up with and probably wouldn't have worked anyway but when it came to the first day of the full moon, they never had the chance to execute their plan. Charity was nowhere to be found. No one was in her house and no one had seen her around either.

Frustrating just wasn't the word as the day drew ever closer to dusk and the threat of the full moon loomed ever nearer. Dean was getting worse and his temper was rising, it was only a matter of time before he took it all out on Sam.

"Dean, please try and calm down." Sam tried.

"Calm down? Sam it's a full moon tonight and in case you haven't noticed, I've been acting like a pregnant woman all week! When the sun goes down, I'm gonna turn into one of those things."

"Right, and that's why you're gonna go in the cage." They were on their way to the vets as they argued.

"And you're gonna shoot me if I escape." Dean stated this rather than requested it.

"No. Don't even ask me to because you know what? You're not gonna escape."

"I don't know how this works yet Sam, but I very much doubt I'll have control."

"Well, I'm gonna shoot the bitch who bit you and everything will be fine."

"No! Sam, you're not going out their hunting her by yourself."

"Once I get you locked up, you'll have no say in the matter."

"What?"

Dean looked over at his little brother as he pulled up near the vets and stopped the engine. He was too shocked to respond quickly enough to the butt of the gun that Sam had just been loading and so, Sam was successful in knocking his big brother out, though for how long was unknown. He moved quickly, jumping out the car and running to the other side. He then began half dragging half carrying Dean's body to the cage inside.

"Oh man, Dean! Have you put on a few pounds?"

Shortly after locking the cage door, Dean began to stir and he rubbed his temple where the gun had struck him.

"I am so gonna make you pay for that Sam!"

"Well, you can do whatever you want when this is all over. I give it an hour at the most before the sun totally goes down and the moon is up so just try and relax. I'll see you soon." Sam turned and placed the keys on the workbench, "I'll be okay Dean."

"Sammy! Sam! No, please. We'll find her together. You said we've got an hour. Sam…" But his brother was just about gone, "Just don't get killed."

Sam paused in the doorway and smirked to himself, "I promise."

And he was gone. He walked over to the Impala and drove the short way towards the place they'd parked in the weeks before. The way he saw it, the werewolf seemed to prefer that clearing, probably with it being in the middle of nature but with a direct view of the moon. Well, the reason didn't matter, because tonight the werewolf would die.

**.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.**

Dean tried not to think about the actual transformation. He could only imagine one word that may describe it and that was 'painful'. He wondered how much he would be aware of, if he'd have any control or if the wolf would just completely take over. It was just a waiting game now. He would wait for the moon and after that, he'd wait to see what happened when Sam finally killed that bitch.

He must have been sat deep in thought for over half and hour before she showed up, her footsteps echoed loudly through the vets. He smelt her before he'd heard her and his head snapped up, waiting for her to make an appearance.

"You bitch." He finally said as she came towards his cage.

She smiled, baring her canines, "Hello Dean."

"What the hell are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be off dying somewhere by a bullet from my brothers gun?"

She looked down at the door that separated her from Dean, she fingered the lock momentarily before turning around and scanning the room. Her eyes fell onto the keys on the bench.

"What are you doing?" Dean gulped as she picked the keys up and wandered back over to his cage.

"What time is it Mr Wolf?" She teased, placing the key in the lock. Dean growled in reply and she smiled, answering her own question, "Dinnertime."


	13. Moon Dance

**.-.-.-.Lycanthrope.-.-.-.**

I'm probably too late for some people in getting this chapter up but I've tried, lol. Here's Chapter 13, only one more to go.

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**13. Moon dance**

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"No…" Dean said as he backed away from her, "I'm not coming out."

"You don't really have a choice. You see, you're brother knows too much and he's going to die tonight, one way or another. The choice is down to you though; you could always try and stop me and by the time you do, the wolf will have taken over and we can feast together."

"You're sick."

She hummed softly under her breath as she opened the cage door wide. The familiar tune made his senses tingle and he before he could react, he felt the first stab of pain in his shoulder. He took a step forward, threateningly and he opened his mouth to shout his threat out loud for the world to hear but she also took a step forward and pressed her lips against his. She pulled him out of the cage where he stumbled away from her grasp.

"You should be happy that I've chosen you. There are so many perks that come with this."

"I'm not interested." Dean spat, wiping his mouth in disgust.

She smiled, slammed the cage door shut and locked it. Dean simply stared in confusion and it wasn't until she threw the keys to the back of the cage out of reach that he realised what she was doing. He made a hopeless lunge towards them and his heart sank as he saw them hit the ground. He was locked outside of his sanctuary, the only thing keeping him away from Sam and stopping that damned vision coming true.

"I'm going to kill you!" He growled louder than any time before and grabbed her back the neck, throwing her against the bars and raising her from the ground a good two feet.

"Killing me like this won't do you any good." She managed to choke out but he his grip didn't loosen.

The second stab of pain echoed through his shoulder once again and he dropped her. She landed elegantly beside him as he fell to the floor, it felt like burning lava was running through his veins and he found it difficult to breath.

"Don't fight it Dean, it'll only make it hurt more." She lifted his chin a little and stared into his deep hate filled hazel eyes, "I'll meet you at the place we first danced."

And just like Sammy, she was gone, leaving Dean to his pain, the pain that had him writhing in agony on the cold floor. He could feel the sweat pouring off of him and he screamed out, something was tearing him apart from the inside. His clothes felt too tight and he struggled to pull his shirt off, struggling so much that it made it harder to breath. He coughed violently, making his body ache even more, and causing blood to spray everywhere, even worse than that time in bathroom a few nights ago. And he knew this time that he must be bleeding inside because it sure felt like something was ripping him apart.

His whole body was on fire and his world felt like it was darkening, so this is what it felt like to change into a werewolf?

**.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.**

The engine died and he stared at the forestry ahead of him, it was getting dark now. He felt childish for thinking it but he wanted his big brother in there with him as he killed this thing, shot it dead once and for all. But Dean was locked up in a cage going through God knows what and Sam had to do this alone so he could get it to stop.

He pulled his scattered thoughts together and climbed out of the Impala. He'd circle the surrounding area for a while before checking the clearing out, if nothing showed up he'd just have to repeat the process. Nothing was going to stop him from getting that werewolf.

Time didn't matter but if he had to guess, he'd say somewhere between forty five minutes and an hour had passed since he'd left Dean alone at the vets. The moon was shining brightly in the night sky now and Sam finally heard something. He caught sight of it from the corner of his eye and sent a shot off, cursing knowing that he'd missed.

He then began to follow the sounds towards the clearing, it wasn't until he found himself in the centre of the open place that he realised it had led him there deliberately and he was officially trapped, not to mention he couldn't get a clear shot. With his spare hand he ruffled his hair in frustration and stared around, watching for the beast but also looking for escape.

"No this can't be happening. This isn't right." He muttered under his breath. He was supposed to hunt her, not the other way round. He was supposed to be the big hero.

CRASH.

The beast circled Sam after landing loudly nearby, it was considering him. Sam cursed himself, he was terrified and that probably made him smell even tastier. He raised his gun, ready to shoot but careful not to make any sudden movements, this thing was far faster than him. The moon illuminated the creature, showing its sharp and deadly claws and sharp and deadly teeth. It was beautiful and regal and horrible and terrifying at the same time. It was also extremely hungry, starving even and was getting far too close to Sam.

He raised his gun further aiming it, it watched him do so and Sam stared deep into its hazel eyes…

"Dean?"

The beast paused, tilting its head to the side, hunger momentarily forgotten as it contemplated this one simple word.

"Hey Dean, I know you're in there man… please… don't eat me…"

The beast growled, Dean growled and bared his canine teeth. He was about to go in for the kill and Sam just couldn't bring himself to pull the trigger. The worst thing was now he could hear Charity behind him and she was going to watch as Dean killed him and she would enjoy it. Sam thought he heard her purring.

Dean's eyes snapped towards hers and as if he remembered something particularly nasty like this werewolf had once stolen his pull toy, he growled more menacingly than ever and dove at her. Sam seemed to be forgotten about, which meant as Dean went flying past him, his claws took some of Sam's flesh with them and Sam was knocked to the ground, bleeding.

He looked up and watched as Dean locked his jaw around the confused Charity's neck and she tried to break free. Her claws dug into his back, causing him to swipe back but he didn't not want to let her go. Her cold grey eyes shone with fear and Dean's jaw got tighter, the teeth going deeper, tearing through her flesh, through her muscle and causing her to cry out for the merest second. That was all she could manage because at that moment, Dean tore away from her, taking half her neck with him. The bloody mess shone eerily in the moonlight and her form fell to the ground limply.

She was dead? Dean had killed her? Sam felt himself smile, this thing was over and he'd gotten away with a scratch on the arm. He stared at Dean expectantly, not wishing to watch as Charity's body changed back to its human form. Dean however was not changing back, meaning that this wasn't quite over.

Their eyes were locked, Sam's were pleading and Dean's were hungry. The hulking form moved towards Sam, blood still dripping from his mouth. Sam raised his gun, but not up high. He knew what he had to do, just like he knew what he had to do back at the cabin the night their father was possessed. So he fired the gun and the shot rang clearly through the open air, echoing in both of their ears.

The pain coursed through his body as the silver bullet plunged into him and Dean fell to ground into a crouch. This whole transformation thing had taken it out of him and then his little wrestle with Charity, followed by being shot by a silver bullet. He just felt so tired and he just wanted to sleep, let the darkness take him as his world faded. Dean's now naked body slumped unmoving in the grass and everything seemed to go silent.

**.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.**


	14. Silence

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Here is the last chapter… I feel slightly sad uploading this because I've really enjoyed writing it but still, I've got evil plot bunnies to tend to now I guess. For some reason I felt compelled to include a little Harry Potter quote in this chapter, if you've read the books you might spot it.

Disclaimer: I will say this for the last time with this story; I do not own Supernatural or anything associated with the show, such as the two brilliant characters of Sam and Dean. I am not getting any money for doing this, believe if I was I'd keep updating.

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**14. Silence**

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Ignoring the ravaged body of Charity, Sam moved quickly over to Dean. He had to work fast, Dean was probably already weak and if he lost too much blood then he was screwed. Sam took off his jacket and laid it over Dean and then he took off his shirt and ripped it into suitable pieces, fixing the largest piece over the new leg wound of Deans and tying it in place with the smaller pieces. Now all that was left was to hoist Dean up into his arms, and man that was hard considering how heavy Dean was, and take him back to the cabin to see to that wound.

The ride was short, but then again when you're worried sick about your brother who was bleeding all over the back seat, you do tend to drive faster, a lot faster. Sam was pleased there was no other traffic about or cops to pull him over because that would just be awkward. When he finally pulled up in front of the cabin, he didn't bother with keys; he just kicked the door open.

He fetched the simple equipment that they had lying around and pulled his makeshift dressing off Dean's leg. Taking a deep breath, he sterilised the metal and grimaced as he began the task of getting the bullet out. Eventually though, the bullet was out, the wound was cleaned and then dressed and Dean lay peacefully tucked under the covers of his bed.

When Dean woke up in the morning, he was confused and unable to focus at first, until he saw Sam and everything came flooding back. He was also very surprised that the memories of what had happened whilst he was the wolf also came back. He had the weirdest taste in his mouth, kind of like copper but not and he lifted his hand up to wipe his mouth. He wasn't quite prepared for the dry blood to start flaking off and felt momentarily sickened by it before gaining control of himself.

"Sam?" He croaked out and he heard his brother shift on the other bed, but there was no reply.

"Hey, Sam?" He tried again, throwing his covers off to reveal a still naked and slightly bruised body; he felt his face blush with embarrassment. He never realised his leg was injured or even bandaged until it was too late. If he had realised sooner, he wouldn't have put so much pressure on it when he tried to stand up and he wouldn't have screamed bloody murder when the pain shot up through him and sent him toppling towards the ground where his already sore limbs began to throb and burn even more.

Sam grunted and shot up, searching the room for the sign of disturbance, confusion hitting him until he heard the soft moans of his brother lying on the floor, "What you doing down there?"

"I fell over." Dean shifted on the floor, pulling his covers off his bed to cover himself up.

"What you fell over for?" Sam rubbed his eyes, still half asleep.

"Well, it's not like I did it on purpose! Personally I think it's 'cause someone shot me in the leg!"

"I kind of had no choice seen as you were planning on EATING me!" Sam stared hard at Dean but he couldn't help but notice the pathetic mess he was, sitting half covered and bruised and scratched in an awkward position on the floor, "Look, why don't you get a shower and I'll get us some breakfast."

Dean nodded, for the first time noticing just how filthy he was, a nice cool shower would do him good. Yet he didn't move. He didn't want to move in front of Sam because he knew that he'd only end up falling over again or would walk so awkwardly and in pain that it would cause Sam to feel sorry for him and even worse, guilty. Sam seemed to sense this, suddenly jumping out bed and grabbing his clothes.

"Right then, I'll be back in half with food and coffee."

He was half way out the door when Dean called to him, "Sam?"

"Yeah, Dean?"

"Do you think everything's gonna be alright now?"

"I dunno. I guess we'll have to see."

When Dean finally managed to pull himself into the cold streaming shower it was after several stumbles and a lot more pain, though the longer he was awake and the more he used the leg, the better it seemed to get. He rested his palms against the wall and let the water wash over him, making the scratches in his back and the gunshot wound sting like crazy. The left over blood trickled down his skin, along with the dried on mud, and got lost in the chaos of water that went down the plughole.

Lost in peaceful thoughts, Dean jumped when he heard a knocking at the bathroom door. He winced as the involuntary movement sent another wave of pain through his body.

"What?" He called out, shutting off the shower and climbing out.

"Breakfast is served."

Not unlike when they were younger, they sat at the table in their small room and ate the breakfast. Well, Sam ate, Dean picked and poked and prodded. He found it slightly difficult to swallow, he just couldn't get the memories of last night out of his head, the intense hunger he'd held had now completely gone and he just felt sick. He tore her throat out with his teeth and he'd been about to do the same thing to Sam.

"Dean…" Sam ventured, his eyes following Dean's fork as it moved a few pieces of food around the plates, "You wanna talk about it?"

"No." Dean put his fork down, "Not yet. Maybe not ever but no, definitely not at the moment."

And Sam didn't push, he was actually quite happy with that answer. It was the sort of answer that didn't push Sam away and didn't try to deny that there was something wrong, "You know we have to go to the vets later."

Dean looked up, "Huh?"

"Well, for starters, we need to get your clothes which in case you didn't notice were missing when you woke up and secondly, we can't be sure that you're not gonna turn."

**.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.**

It was ten o'clock, the sun was down and the moon was up. Sam leaned against the workbench and Dean leaned against the bars, he had his necklace around his neck once again and he drummed his fingers against the bars and hummed to himself, knowing very well that deep down inside, it was annoying his little brother. What got Sam's attention though was when he suddenly burst out laughing and Sam stared at him curiously, raising his eyebrow in a questioning manner.

"I'm sorry… it's just, I'm never going to be able to get that picture of you reaching for the keys out of my mind. It's permanently imprinted."

"You know, if you're that bored I could always get a ball and we could play fetch?" Sam teased, refusing to show his irritation, he rubbed his arm where the bars had scraped against it.

"I've already told you what I'd do if you even tried that."

"Yeah well, I'm not the one locked up right now."

"Oh but payback is a bitch and believe me, you would pay."

"Shut up, Jerk."

"Bitch."

Their positions changed several times through the night and everything was silent. When the sun finally began to rise, Dean was fast asleep curled up on the floor of the cage and Sam just couldn't miss the opportunity to take his picture. The clicking of the phone woke Dean up and broke the silence but it soon settled again, in the form of acceptance that Dean would not be changing into a hairy beast again any time soon.

You couldn't say they road off into the sunset, because it wasn't really the sunset, it wasn't even the sunrise; they just drove in the opposite direction and out of Woodland Creek. Neither one wanted to admit just how close they came to losing yet another Winchester and as they drove, Sam in the drivers seat, Dean in shotgun, they shared a quick glance, one quick moment that echoed a thousand unsaid words such as 'I love you' and 'I'm sorry' and 'Thank you'. Sam smiled and looked out onto the road again, quietly saying in his mind, _they were never the same eyes. _Dean however winced as they went over another bump on the road and pain was sent through his leg, quietly saying in his mind, _Goddammit, I am so gonna get him back one day for shooting me… again!_


End file.
